Things about the female knight in black stockings

"Then why do they insist on mining in this way? For those large families, they could simply obtain the mining and management rights of the vein through proper procedures, right?"

"You're right, those illegal mines are all backed by powerful families to some extent."

Ai Lei nodded first, then gritted her teeth:

"As for why they refuse to follow the proper procedures and insist on risking being arrested for breaking the law, the reason is actually quite simple... cost, mainly in two aspects."

The first aspect is the process. The application process for legally mining a mineral vein is extremely cumbersome here, and there are high hidden costs... You don't think those business association bureaucrats can enjoy a luxurious lifestyle just because of their salaries, do you?"

"To reduce the hidden costs of being exploited by bureaucrats while going through procedures? I understand."

Valensa understood immediately; this was nothing new to her.

For example, in her previous life in the real estate industry, the construction cost was usually less than half the selling price. Even after factoring in other miscellaneous costs, the profit margin should have exceeded 40%. However, the actual profit that developers received was far less. Why? Because of those hidden costs.

Merchants are profit-driven, and it's common for them to exploit loopholes and operate in the gray areas of the law as long as they can increase their actual profit margin.

"Reducing the extra expenses incurred during the process is one aspect, and another aspect is the workers."

Ellie added:

"As a country with a highly developed mining industry, the formal mining of mineral veins and the employment of miners are subject to very strict conditions, the most important of which is the safety guarantee of the miners."

Underground mines are always fraught with unexpected events, not only from various environmental dangers, but also from many underground monsters living in the darkness, all of which threaten the lives of the miners.

Therefore, the Commercial Law clearly stipulates that the owner of each mine must sign a formal employment contract with the miners, promising to compensate the miners in the event of an accident during their work, and providing the miners with necessary protection measures.

These safeguards include, but are not limited to, regularly distributing escape scrolls to miners, providing them with specialized protective clothing, and hiring adventurers to defend against underground monsters.

These safeguards also represent a significant cost to the mine owners, who naturally want to minimize their expenses wherever possible.

"They're even skimping on safety measures? How can the miners accept that?"

Valensa's face darkened further.

From her past life, she had always hated those unscrupulous factories that refused to adhere to basic principles like safe production in order to reduce costs. Every time she saw similar reports online, she wanted to smash those lousy factories and skin the factory owners alive and hang them on streetlights.

Ai Lei's expression was equally unpleasant, but not with anger; rather, it was one of deep helplessness.

"The problem is that miners will agree... and many miners would rather work in illegal mines than in legitimate mines."

The reason is quite simple: the pay is higher at illegal mining operations.

In legitimate mines, mine owners spend a lot of money to build safety measures for miners, so the miners' actual take-home pay is not high.

The owners of illegal mining farms, having saved on huge security expenses, are very generous when paying their miners, with the highest salaries even exceeding three times that of legitimate mining farms.

"Valenza, you are a noble lady of Fran, and have never lacked anything since childhood. It's probably hard for you to understand that for some people in dire need of money, an extra few dozen gold coins can drive them to work desperately."

...No, I can actually understand.

Valensa immediately thought of the three years she spent as an adventurer in Sergin Town. Back then, in order to earn money as quickly as possible and become stronger, she took on many monster-hunting missions that others considered almost suicide.

If this applies to adventurers, it's probably similar for miners.

That's what she thought, but Valensa didn't explain it deliberately. Instead, she followed Ellie's train of thought and continued to make guesses:

"Since those illegal mines have abandoned providing safety guarantees for their miners, it is impossible for accidents not to happen during the mining process... Whether it is environmental killings or attacks by underground monsters, many miners will probably be left underground forever."

Since these miners were not hired through legitimate channels, their deaths had to be concealed, and the best excuse for concealment was 'disappearance'.

So this is also a major reason why the disappearance rate in Mosantina remains high, and a major reason why the Chamber of Commerce knows about the high disappearance rate in Mosantina but acts as if they don't, right?

"That's it."

Ai Lei nodded and sighed:

“It’s quite normal for someone to suddenly disappear in Mosantina, so normal that many families of missing persons don’t even take it seriously.”

They either thought it was just their child being rebellious and running away from home, and that if left unattended, the child would run out of money and come back on their own in a few days. Or they actually knew their family member worked in an illegal mine, and would even try to evade the questioning when confronted with it…

All of this provided that bastard and pervert with the perfect environment to commit his crime.

"No wonder that psychopathic serial killer has only committed crimes in the area surrounding Mosantina City for so many years. No wonder he has been able to get away with it for so many years..."

Valensa murmured in amazement:

“Besides the fact that he may possess some kind of strange ability, the social atmosphere of Mosantina also protected him.”

That psychopathic killer murdered more than 200 people in 9 years, which is definitely a top-level level of madness and cruelty among murderers. But compared with the disappearances of more than 200 people in 9 years, it is really nothing.

So in the end, the only organization that has been relentlessly pursuing that deranged killer is the Church of the Sun, which is considered a lawful and good organization. Even the local Chamber of Commerce enforcement team in Mosantina has long since entered a mode of simply going through the motions and following procedures.

Especially after Ms. Dina moved to Fran and opened her shop, the frequency of the perverted killer's crimes dropped significantly, and even the public didn't care much about it anymore.

At least according to Ai Lei, a few years ago when that psychopathic killer was killing several people a month, it was rare to see young women wearing short skirts and stockings on the streets of Mosantina.

Now it's clearly different. When Valensa and Tia were strolling around Mosantina the day before yesterday, they could easily spot several young beauties wearing short skirts and stockings just by glancing around on the street... Although the city hasn't caught the psychopathic killer yet, it seems to have emerged from his shadow.

"When was the last time that bastard committed a crime?"

After lying on the bed, swinging her two black-stockinged legs in silence for a while, Valensa asked again.

"It was more than three months ago."

Ereshkigal was clearly prepared for this question and answered immediately:

"The victim was an ordinary prostitute who lived alone in Mosantina and earned money while her family farmed in the countryside."

When we found her legs, she had been dead for more than twelve days... We were able to identify her by finding one of her regular customers based on a signature on her thigh.

I asked the gang members in charge of managing her, but those gang members only went to collect protection money from her once a month and rarely paid attention to her whereabouts. They didn't know when she disappeared, and the Business Federation's law enforcement team also had no record of a police report.

As with many previous cases, aside from the modus operandi identifying the perpetrator as a scoundrel, no other valuable findings were made; not even the approximate time and location of the victim's disappearance were known.

"This……"

Valensa racked her brains to recall the detective stories she had read in her previous life:

"Did you carefully examine the victim's shoe soles and stockings? Perhaps we can determine where she went before the incident from the residue on her shoe soles and stockings?"

"Of course it has been checked."

Eresh sighed:

“Every time we find a victim’s leg, we do these checks… Just like in the case that bastard committed before, there was nothing of value found on the sole of the shoe. There was indeed dirt on it, but after comparison, it turned out to be dirt from the place where she often worked on the street.”

As for the stockings on her legs, they were just ordinary, inexpensive stockings. Although they looked a bit snagged and worn, they were clean and showed no signs of being violently damaged or violated.

"Cheap stockings...worn...but very clean?"

Valensa muttered these words to herself several times, then her eyes suddenly lit up:

"you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure... Is there a problem with that?"

Aileen gave Valensa a strange look.

"has a problem."

Valensa suddenly perked up, even jumping out of bed, but without shoes, wearing only black pantyhose, she walked back and forth on the carpet, saying as she went:

"This victim was a prostitute! Although you, Sister Ailei, are a bare-legged person, it's clear that the stocking party has the upper hand in this world... In other words, for a prostitute like the deceased, stockings are like arrows in an archer's quiver—a consumable, especially cheap stockings like these."

They almost never wear the same cheap stockings multiple times, especially after washing them, and the stockings on their legs are almost always damaged during work.

The customers who tear their stockings often give them a tip in addition to their regular wages, so they can buy new stockings... Although the tip is not much, it is still a source of extra income for low-income workers.

Even if they encounter customers who don't like their stockings torn, these sex workers will use all sorts of tricks to get customers to tear their stockings in order to get extra tips.

The latest victim, a prostitute, was wearing clean, old stockings that had been washed, which is highly likely the perpetrator's doing... The perpetrator may have left some marks on the victim's stockings but didn't want to ruin them, so they washed them themselves!

"what?"

This time, it was Ellie's turn to be dumbfounded.

She lay there stunned for a while, not refuting Valensa's conjecture, but instead thoughtfully scrutinizing Valensa with a half-smile:

"Valenza, how do you know so much about these things? I've heard Ilana say that you like girls, but don't you already have a girlfriend? You wouldn't be out chasing after other women even though you have a girlfriend, would you? Like those dissolute noblemen of your Fran?"

"No...no, that's not true!"

Valensa offered a weak rebuttal, then immediately changed the subject:

"Sister Ai Lei, do you still have the legs and stockings of that perverted serial killer's victim? Can you take me to see them?"

“I did not keep any of the victim’s legs.”

Eresh shook her head:

“For victims whose identities can be confirmed, I return their remains to their families after investigation, so that they can be buried. For victims whose identities cannot be confirmed, I purify their remains with holy flames and hold a blessing ceremony for them, so that their souls may rest in peace.”

Seeing Valensa's obvious disappointment, Ereshkigal smiled again:

"However, I've preserved almost all of the shoes and stockings the victims were wearing when they were found, as evidence and potential clues. If you're interested, Valencia, I can take you to see them right now."

"Please take me to see her, Sister Ellie," Valensa said earnestly.

"Let's go then."

Eresh did not refuse. She quickly jumped off the bed, put on her boots, and led Valensa out of the lounge. They went to the stairwell and headed down to the cathedral's basement.

In front of a door without any nameplate, but sealed by divine magic, Eresh stopped and gently touched the seal with her finger.

This should be a divine seal with a bloodline verification mechanism, somewhat like a fingerprint lock. It clicked open automatically after Ereshkigal tapped it lightly.

Upon entering, the room was not large, only about 20 square meters.

Directly opposite the door was a large bookshelf, but there wasn't a single book on it. Instead, there were square boxes, about the size of footballs, piled up on all eight shelves, numbering at least a hundred.

On the left is another bookshelf, slightly smaller than the one directly opposite the door, also filled with square boxes about the size of a football. The two bookshelves together contain more than two hundred square boxes, exactly the same number as the number of victims of the psychopathic killer.

To the right of the door, there were three whiteboards side by side, covered with numerous clues and analyses written in black ink, along with a map of Mosantina with many markings.

Valensa immediately understood the purpose of the room and said to Ereshkigal:

"Is this where you, Sister Ailei, analyze cases and store the victims' belongings?"

"Yes."

Eresh nodded, glanced at the bookshelf on the left-hand side after entering, then picked up a square box and handed it to Valensa:

"Here you go, this is what you wanted to see."

Valensa took the box and glanced at it. The box itself was nothing special, except for a small note on the front with a string of numbers on it, which was probably the date the victim's leg was found.

Valensa glanced at the other boxes on the bookshelf and noticed that each box had the same note with the date written on it. Ereshkigal must have used this method to distinguish the victims.

Turning her gaze away, Valensa carefully opened the box. First, she smelled the scent of socks, then she saw a pair of white high-heeled sandals and a pair of flesh-colored stockings.

Just as Ellie said, the shoes and stockings were very clean, which meant that the sadistic killer must have carefully cleaned them before discarding the victim's legs, most likely by washing them with water.

Valensa held the flesh-colored stockings in her hands, rubbed them together, and gently tugged at them a few times before quickly making her judgment:

"They are indeed cheap stockings of poor quality. In Fran, you can buy more than 20 of these stockings for 1 gold coin. They are very cheap, and you won't feel bad about tearing them."

Even ordinary people would wear these stockings once or twice before throwing them away and getting new ones, let alone a prostitute in such a profession… The person who washed the stockings is likely the murderer! But why would the murderer do this? What was he trying to wash away?

Without waiting for Ellie's reply, Valensa continued searching between the two bookshelves, picking out more than a dozen square boxes, opening them, and taking out the stockings inside for careful inspection.

"These stockings were indeed all washed!"

Valensa was slightly excited:

"I selected these items from victims who were engaged in special work. They were supposed to treat stockings as disposable items and should not wear these old, washed stockings."

If only one victim did this, it could be considered a coincidence, but the fact that they were all defying common sense by wearing old stockings is definitely not a coincidence! These stockings were washed by the murderer!

"...I've never really noticed that before."

Aileen looked at Valensa with a strange and complicated expression:

"After all, I would never bother to know how sex workers wear stockings."

"Hehehe... It's just a personal hobby, a personal hobby."

Valensa smiled and gave a perfunctory reply. She then carefully collected the belongings of the dozen or so victims and put them back in their places. After rummaging between the two bookshelves for a while, she found a box and opened it.

This box also contained shoes and stockings, but they looked much more expensive than the shoes and stockings in the previous boxes.

The shoes were high heels for formal occasions, made of high-end materials and with exquisite workmanship. The stockings were a very alluring pair of purple suspender stockings, also made of very expensive materials, and there were even a few simple magical patterns on the stockings, which seemed to have the effects of 'increasing attack speed' and 'restoring stamina'.

This box was something Valensa had specifically sought out. The owner of the high heels and purple stockings was none other than the wealthy young lady who had disappeared on her way to a date with her lover.

"As expected..."

After examining the purple stockings in her hands, Valensa took a deep breath: